-The Hindu ICAR “shielding errant officials” by delaying the report In a damning indictment of the way some Bt cotton varieties were developed and commercialised in the country, a committee headed by Prof. S.K. Sopory, Vice-Chancellor of JNU, found that indigenous Bikaneri Nerma (BN) Bt cotton variety was contaminated by a gene patented by Monsanto. Having found lapses in the “BNLA106 event”, the committee has held as “invalid” the data obtained from bio-safety...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today refused to stay field trials of genetically modified food crops for now despite a court-appointed panel recommending a 10-year moratorium, after the Centre said such a freeze would hit food security for a growing population. The five-member technical expert committee’s (TEC) interim report had advocated the moratorium till the country improved its regulatory system for GM field trials to ensure proper evaluation of these crops’ health,...

-MoneyLife.in If you were wondering why most of the recent major cases of corruption have not been exposed by opposition parties, especially the BJP, now you have the answer: they are all in it together. I am ready for any inquiry,” repeated Nitin Gadkari on every television channel where he brazenly defended the dubious shell companies and land allotment that propelled the growth of his ballooning ‘social entrepreneurship’. The irony is that Nitin...

Environmentalists, civil society groups and scientists working with marginal farmers have welcomed recommendation of the Supreme Court appointed Technical Expert Committee (TEC) placing a 10-year moratorium on field trials of GM crops in India. The TEC freeze advice includes field trials of Bt transgenics in all food crops which are used directly for human consumption. (See links below for the actual report and more details) The TEC, which was appointed in...

-The Hindu Business Line Pushpa M. Bhargava, former Vice-Chairman of National Knowledge Commission, has defended the recommendations of the technical committee, appointed by the Supreme Court, which called for a moratorium on the field trials of genetically modified crops. “The recommendations are in consonance with the increasing evidence and awareness in the two American continents where over 90 per cent of the world’s GM crops are grown that the increasing health problems...